Thomas Mayo is an Australian of Kaurareg and Kalkalgal and Erubamle Torres Strait Islander ancestry. He is an award-winning author, a playwright and human rights activist. He was a signatory of the Uluru Statement of the Heart. 

He delivered the 21st Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture at the Freedom Day Festival in 2022. Thomas has also been published in the New York Times, The Guardian, Griffith Review and The Sydney Morning Herald. His book The Voice to Parliament Handbook, co-authored with Kerry O’Brien and with cartoons by Cathy Wilcox, was awarded the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year (non-fiction) in 2024.